Emoticons Landed Me In Jail

I bring you the case of 31-year-old, James Pischel, sent to prison for using his computer to entice a 15-year-old girl who turned out to be a police investigator– he says the state entrapped him.

Umm.  Haven’t we all seen enough episodes of Dateline NBC’s To Catch A Predator.  Did you not see the South Park spoof?  Don’t you know by now that the jailbait you are chatting with online is probably Chris Hanson or some member of law enforcement.

Maybe Mr. Pischel felt he was above the law, since at the time of his arrest, he was employed as a corrections corporal at the Lincoln Correctional Center.  Instead of working at the penitentiary he is now a guest.  But wait, this week, his attorney is arguing before the Nebraska Supreme Court that emoticons were used to entrapment his client. Yes, these things…

Matt Graff of the Lancaster County Public Defender’s Office, argued before the Court that, the investigator played on Pischel’s emotions and continued to chat with him after Pischel said no thanks — she was too young — two months earlier.

When Pischel said he wouldn’t meet, the investigator sent an angry face emoticon. When Pischel tried to end the chat without contacting the “girl” again, the investigator blew him a “kiss.”  This apparently was enough to get him going; he ended up going to a park for a rendezvous.  The police apprehended him upon arrival.

Graff argued Pischel, should have a new trial because the jury wasn’t allowed to be given an instruction on the entrapment defense.

I don’t care.  Nobody made him go to the park.  He worked in law enforcement, so he should have known the law better than most.  He’s an idiot.  He’s a danger.  Drop the appeal and keep him locked up.